NFO-42 (AV10449): US Farm Report: Working with the NFO

[music] welcome to another program of u.s. farm report brought to you by members of the national farmers organization in this area and the interest of Agriculture private enterprise business and the welfare of our nation [music] once again it's a real privilege and pleasure to come into your home and talk with you about something that's very very close to our hearts and that's the condition of the farmer in this day and age my name is al hold Bauer and I'm the minister at the Cedar Lake Church of Christ in Waterloo Indiana and with me this day is Reverend Jim Lex from Loogootee Indiana and we have a problem and that's why we're here to discuss it with you I think one of the stories that I've very well the condition of the farmer story about three Turtles now there's one about that big pretty good-size turtle and then there was a middle sized one about that big and then there was a little old fellow about that big just a little guy these little turtles you know that you can buy in a five-and-dime store and it appeared that these three Turtles went out for a cup of coffee and when they got to the place with a cup of coffee why the big turtle looked out and pointing to the window he said look out there he said why it's raining outside middle sized turtle said what is it and then they looked at this little turtle and they said to him you notice it's raining outside and he said yes and the big turtle pointed with him to him then and said you are going home and get an umbrella well he finally agreed that he would go home get an umbrella but there would have to be one condition to it they would have to leave his coffee alone well he they finally said all right we'll leave your coffee we're not going to mess with your coffee you go ahead six months went by a year went by eighteen months finally two years had passed by and the big turtle said to the middle-sized turtle I said no use of waiting any longer both reached for the coffee cup but when they did from the farthest corner in that room came this little voice if you do I won't go and I think ladies probably the problem is that the farmer has been back there in the corner just not doing anything and this is tragic because the problem of course is affecting him greater than any of us we are interested in the national farmers organization we are spokesman for the National Farmers Organization the purpose of this organization to put it pure and simple as this to unite the farmers in such a way that they can bargain collectively in other words that they can sell under contract if they can get 60 percent of any commodity and they can activate a master contract this is the the express purpose of it now other farm organizations and without speaking ill of any of them other farm organizations to date have not done this to the extent that the national farmers organization desires to do it some to his little I had a young man in my congregation come to me and asked me al what do you think about the National Farmers Organization I told him at that time that I wasn't interested in it I didn't have any interest whatsoever and that as at that moment why I thought that I probably was opposed to it I then attended a meeting in the city of Indianapolis in Indiana and there I had the wonderful privilege of meeting some nine hundred farmers all of them interested in one thing that's the marketing of their product I went back home and I studied the literature for about three months and to be real honest with you folks I study did to be critical and Reverend Jim this was this was the reason that I accepted the literature I studied it just to be critical in that meeting as the Reverend here knows he was one of the speakers and I said in the you're the front I usually sit near the front I go to hear something why I want to hear all of it you know they say the philosophy of the American today Reverend is he desires the back of the church the front of the bus in the middle of the road and I thought perhaps as you spoke that they I thought well this is it that someone has told that priest about my presence and he's after me but sure you know something people who attend church when the preacher and the priest gets up there's a lot of things and he seems to hit on all your sins you think and he mentioned then Reverend likes mentioned then the responsibility of every rural clergyman I became interested I took the literature home studied it with a critical eye and after three months I was asked to give a little talk and I've been given little talks in 14 states and covered about 50,000 miles on these little talks I've spoken to I suppose someplace neighborhood forty or forty-five thousand farmers there are a great group of people they're interested in them more and more are becoming interested in the organization purposes as I mentioned contract selling now Reverend Jim you might tell us something on how you well and what you what your impressions are the organization haven't been in it for some time now about five or six years ago was a min of the Perry came in and asked me what I knew about the nfo and I didn't know anything about it so uh he asked me go to a meeting and it was very interesting because I think it was the state representative or state delegate Glenn Utley who spoke and at that time we also were able to get some literature and we studied you and it just seemed to be a natural because for a minister or priest it seems like you know that everybody has to be together there can't no one can stand alone and I read about it and I went to a few more meetings and the first thing you know I was involved very much so and as we go around now visiting and talking different ones a lot of people bring out different things that they are concerned about because they they worry farmers are great warriors you know this they worry about what will happen if this nice no farmers organization would ever get to a point where they would have contracts I think that so many times our fears keep us from improving ourselves from making any progress at all look at our country we sometimes are a little purple of unions or unionism and it's the very basis for the United States that Jefferson, Washington all these people the very emblem on the coins- "E pluribus unum" one out of many so that they realized from the very first that you had to have some kind of group organization and so applies to the farmers a lot of people are so fearful that someone's gonna be telling them what to do well in an organized age we know that freedom so-called is always within limits and it's better to have your neighbors your friends the people that you vote on in your own little County telling you what to do and to have someone who is far away who isn't really is concerned about the problem with so as you are at home there are a lot of fears that cost for example how do we know that we're gonna make as much money how do we know that that the money that we pay in and dues is going to well we know in everything that has any future in it like the space program the United States government spends millions and millions of dollars hoping for the future the same thing applies in the national farmers organization that they are trying in every way to help people today so that future generations will profit by what we were able to do today so many times we're a little afraid to take that first step to find out a little bit more about it this is all that we hope to get from all of you is that you at least go seeking but you go try to find out a little bit more about this organization we don't particularly want you to join just to be joining because we don't want members just to have number because for this organization you have to be an act of man you have to be an act of farmer just be willing to fight for this because it is something rather revolutionary especially in agriculture it takes a lot of courage a lot of man to be able to surmount ones fears and to be willing to go out and to try to work together with the other farmers for the purpose of collective bargaining and of course we don't advocate violence or any of this and I'm sure that the National Farmers Organization that whenever there is any kind of violence or any kind of things like this that happened well you know as well as I that this never helps an organization and so when you hear these little rumors or stories and things like this this might be an individual person individual set of circumstances and it certainly doesn't represent the philosophy behind the national farmers organization you travel around a lot remember an old bar and how does it look getting more interesting I think Reverend Jim one of the things that interests me and not only interest me but fascinates me is that a few years ago when I when I first started to travel around while if we had if we had something like two or three hundred in attendance but we felt that we hadn't really accomplished something and yet I take note and then a great measure of pride that today it is not news but all to speak to 1500 2500 3,000 individuals there's a great deal of interest being generated here by the organization sometimes individuals say to me and this is a good question they say well al why why isn't it that more aren't joining why is it that the organization isn't growing even faster now some of you out there maybe have never heard about the National Farmers Organization just let me make note of this that we cover an area from the state of New Jersey clean across the country with the exception of the two states Wyoming in Washington and from Canada right to the Gulf of Mexico we operate now in 28 states if we had the personnel and we at this present time do not have insufficient personnel we could move into a great number of states in the next few months the national farmers organization we would like to see it grow more and more but we have to deal realistically with you know how people really are not the way we expect them to react I think one of the most interesting things I ever read was the type of minds you know diversity of minds and you appreciate this Reverend Jim we have we have the individual anything that new anything new comes out where they join they're right there they're gonna be a part of this as a new program and they're going to be a part of it and they're all for it and then you know that and I'm sure this applies to the members in your parishes it doesn't mind these individuals usually don't it's sort of like the story that Jesus told the seed falls in pretty shallow ground and withers and dies and that's the end of it then we have the individual who is sort of a capsule mind they they've already decided all that they're going to believe on any given issue and they're not interested in listening and that's it they used to tell us in the seminary that some of we preachers were like the sealed ball bearings you know after we left the seminary nothing get in there now sometimes individuals as we talk to him about the the organization they said well I belong to two or three other farm organizations and I'm not interested in joining any others I I don't see whether there's anything really being done this is hard to get through to individuals like this we have to show them through our personal dedication and enthusiasm that we don't have a cure-all or panacea but we have something here that will work it's utilitarian enough to work then we have of course the uninformed and I think that this is probably the big problem those who are uninformed and to get this information to them so that they can appreciate what can be done with a united effort I think that representative Volkonsky recently said unite for parish and this is a very very true we need to this is so so essential we need to discipline ourselves to many of the problems that are at hand too often we live such undisciplined lives and when we do the discipline in our lives where an organization is concerned it doesn't seem to be too easy to to qualify for it or to add it to our lives we we like to think that things are just going to happen but you've never heard of anything just happening you know someone has to put the effort forth someone has to have the ideas you know in every other phase of the economy and every other profession they organize them every every group I note that 97% of all of Americans are organized for bargaining now we represent the farmer today represents roughly about three point two tenths percent this is voting power and a few of us and I'm sure the same apply to all those who see this program there were the fact that legislation itself is not the answer and I think the farmer out there those Reverend Jim just as well as you and I do that government intervention is not the answer bigger and bigger and bigger government projects and government subsidy is not the answer well it's been proven because look what we've been having and it hasn't helped anything in fact the prices are practically the same as they've been for the last ten years you know in agriculture where's everything else is going up and I heard someone explain once that part of the problem of inflation is that all the segments of the economy are not equally getting their share and every time there is a spiral or rise the farmer gets a little less of the pie and whereas if this were equalized out then everybody would get even so that the urge for inflation would be lost and it would help stabilize the whole economy we've got so many things and farmers have been I guess organized to death you know I mean that they have this organization that organization and so they almost feel like well the National Farmers organization is just another organization and they don't have the urge to give it a try but if they could just go to a meeting like you and I look what happen to us and take their ministers along and be surprising how much effect they could have in their own community on which they could learn and then they could judge for themselves and not have someone telling them what to do because we don't want people to be told we want them to come in voluntarily freely because it's really for them it's a service organization that they don't have any business connected with it it's all service and once the bargaining is set up the National Farmers Organization will gradually step out and it will it's not in the business to make business for itself it's here to help and serve the farmers and this is what we really need I don't think that you could find too many farmers today who would tell you that they were satisfied with prices most them are not satisfied with them and they ought not be satisfied with them we tried to point out to them for instance one illustration would be on the problem of milk this is a this is one that has to be dealt with and we have to be realistic about it when bill can be purchased in some areas of the country someplace near the sum of 270 to 320 400 wait and then be sold up to 22 dollars to the consumer then the spread is far too great and I would like to say this to the farmer that's listening today you have the barn you have the land and you produce the grain you buy the truck to take the animal to market or the animals to market or the grain to market and yet having having accomplished all of this you fall down and you just fall flat on your face when it comes to to bargaining for what you have produced you just take whatever you can get whatever you can get this seems to be a satisfactory and of course there's an issue that poppy has know you've probably never heard of it but I think that you ought to be told it and you probably remember this if you don't remember very much about the program or what we have said and that's this that when you when you permit yourself and I'm gonna use the word I think that best fits the situation when you permit yourself to be cheated then you become involved in the immorality of that transaction in a very very real way and when you refuse to bargain or when you don't have a desire to bargain and you permit this to on then you contribute to the delinquency of the individual that you're dealing with most of the farmers are not aware of the fact that in our poverty where poverty is concerned that the farmer represents about 16 percent of it and this is tremendous 16 percent of it in some of our states the poverty shows in some of the states words as high as 48 percent on the part of the farmer this is a tragedy our president speaks of the Great Society and I concur with them this is a Great Society I don't know of any land that's greater than the great land of America and yet I can't imagine in this great Society of free enterprise any group of people who would be satisfied without this wonderful vehicle of bargaining just can't imagine it labor has one as you know a Reverend Jim 97 million dollars here just in the auto industry in just a number actually it was less than two weeks of bargaining you know a lot of times we just hear it said that well you'll get better prices if you join up for collective bargaining but I think that that's just kind of short-sighted that we should look to a little longer view of helping to raise the dignity of a farmer that a man can be proud that he will get just returned for everything that he does he's not being taken advantage of you no matter how much money you give a man if he doesn't feel pride in his bargaining in his whole endeavor he's not gonna be a happy man and if we want truly great farmers they have to have that dignity and only if they band together and get the fairness the justice that's due them will they ever have it I think one of our problems too is the fact that our we equate so often bigness with goodness and and this is not true bigness and goodness cannot be equated we we have made and I think that it needs to we need to rectify this we've made land cannibals of a big number of farmers the idea has been well now you stay and stick with it as long as you can and when your neighbor folds well you can go over there and buy a piss land and then you'll get bigger and this will solve the problem but statistics from USDA show that this is not true the bigness does not solve the problem sometimes we equate progress and change now change doesn't necessarily mean progress it can mean that it depends why we're changing and what direction were driving when we make a change the the farmer today I think will either organize Reverend Jim or he'll fossilised yeah and he's going to wonder who were fossilize or Christus crystallize because he can't go on in this in this present condition do you think no and it seems like that if he don't organize today that just a few years from now somebody's gonna organize that's true if he don't somebody else will never we makes his place you know when they do we're in for some very unpleasant surprises because they there will be someone's going to step in here and organize and then we're going to have bigness and we're going to have change but we may not have as much progress as we think we pay about eighteen or nineteen cents and the dollar for food don't we I think it and Russia phase about fifty two cents on the dollar and here's something that's interesting the farmer is getting two percent less of the food dollar today than when he got back in 1930 when we were in the throes of the worst depression known in this country so this is extremely sad you know if we don't organize to do something the small family farms you know the backbone of our culture really are going to well in fact this one the recent reports said that they want to try to move the small farmers off the farm they want to move 2.5 million families off the farm well we're really what do we value what are we wanting don't we respect the farming profession don't we try to encourage the virtues that being close to nature ring it seems like we're we're losing something very valuable if we don't try to save the small farm because it's efficient this has been proved over the years that even though the farmer gets less he still manages to survive it's practical and it's helpful to the community it helps small business and it's just something that we tend to forget about that if the small farmer goes small business goes that small bank goes and everything goes and then along with that Reverend Jim the thing that's gonna go that is a small town yeah there's no question and of course when the small town is done there will be no need for the rural Church that's what you see it becomes extinct and statistics show that we have closed up hundreds literally hundreds of rural churches because they could not be supported and this is an all religious persuasion so this is not peculiar just to the Protestant group or one particular Protestant group but this includes the Catholic people as well doesn't it surely and a number of priests I had occasion to talk to several hundred in Minnesota and Wisconsin and this is a real concern of these priests what shall happen with the rural parish and so it ought to be a concern of every individual that in America today and we're not just talking to farmers you know this is this is for everybody because if we value anything about our country we know that what has made it so great is the industry the responsibility the dignity of the farmers just because the farmers have become less and less of the percentage of population doesn't mean that we should just write them off because all our food and all our substance is from the farms and we must always realize that what we have comes truly from from God and nature and the greater the farmers are the greater your country I think this is the this is really the challenge of a decade isn't it mm-hmm the the preservation of the small family farm recently there was an article printed and there are a great number of people who who do not believe is you and I do and maybe some in listening today will not believe perhaps that the importance of preserving it the family farm but it must be preserved because it is part of the warm roof of our society a very very vital part of it and it's going to take involvement it's going to take some sacrifice and this is where we get into some pretty difficult problems the idea of being involved individuals say well why should I be involved let someone else do it and you know I was showing you Reverend Jim the letter about let George do it and maybe folk out there what we've been doing is is we've had George we were depending on George to do it well George is going to do it all right but he's not going to do it so that it will be beneficial he's going to do it and we're gonna pay the tax we're gonna pay the dance don't do it for George that's right he's going to do it for George and it's not going to be accomplished in a very good manner I think one time in a speech I mentioned I got up before a group and said I had just received a telegram that George died and now we had to get busy and do something about it and I think that the farmer needs to investigate this organization he needs to do it now it's an imperative that he investigates now that he perhaps stopped listening to so many of the rumors and get the literature and go to the meetings and investigate now and see to what extent the National Farmers organization can help him right and if he doesn't know this to this organization needs to go to the organization that he's in and starting yet asking them questions this is good order what are you doing to help this what are you doing to help the economy what are you doing to help the United States what are you doing to preserve the small farmer- this is excellent- because if you don't really stand you know and be committed to something like the old saying you'll fall for anything you know if you don't stand for something he'll fall for anything that's a German I make phone I think also in professor students book and philosophy of the soil and roots of the soil he mentions that every society every society that has ever been here on planet earth when they decided to rid themselves of the farmers and the farms this was the end and this seems to me what some individuals want to do it at this at this stage of the game is to tell the farmer in essence we don't need you anymore these we don't need two and 5/10 million of you you need to the farmer that's listening today needs to ask the question the people who proposed this and what do you intend to do with us you know if we're to be moved off the land well just exactly what do you intend to do with us and what are we going to do for a living we were very appreciative once again of the occasion to be with you and to be in your homes and if you have occasion to see this telecast or could see it more than once we would suggest that you do and then if you see it and you know that it's gonna be shown someplace else call a few folks on the phone and say yeah there's going to be a priest and a minister talking about the National Farmers Organization and collective bargaining and you ought to watch it we appreciate it and I think the people that you call and tell about it they'll appreciate it too it might be good if you have a chance to to go out to a meeting their meetings being held all around in different counties throughout almost all the states the United States and if you just drop in you don't have to commit yourself just get the literature it would be certainly helpful to you [music] this program is brought to you by members of national farm organization in the listening area in the interest of agriculture private enterprise business and the welfare of our nation [music]